Toontown Bump Beads (1994, Sega, Compile/Warner Bros., Hanna-Barbera and King Features Syndicate game version)
Toontown Bump Beads is a falling block puzzle game developed by Compile and published by Sega with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Hanna-Barbera and King Features Syndicate, Inc.It was released for the Genesis/Mega Drive in North America and Europe in November 1994 and was ported to the Game Gear and Master System in December 1994 and June 1995, respectively. The plot revolves around Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera, Popeye and Rocky and Bullwinkle series antagonist Dick Dastardly kidnapping residents from Toontown in Beadville and turning them into robots, with the purpose of removing all joy from the planet Toonville. Toontown Bump Beads is the Westernized version of Puyo Puyo and replaces its characters with those from the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera, Popeye and Rocky and Bullwinkle franchise, primarily the Wacky Races old cartoon series. The gameplay is reminiscent of Tetris, in which the player must organise different coloured shapes as they fall down a board. The game received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the gameplay but criticising the difficulty. Plot The game is set on the planet Toonville, which is inhabited by bead-like creatures. Dick Dastardly conceives of a plan to bring terror to the world by kidnapping the citizens of Beadville in Toontown and turning them into robot slaves, and eventually creating an army that will help him rid the planet of fun and joy. To achieve this, he creates the "Toontown Bump Bead-Power Machine" in order to transform the bead-like creatures into robots. Putting his plan into motion, Dastardly sends out his Hench-toons in Toontown to gather all the bead-like creatures and group them together in dark dungeons so they can be sent to the Toontown Bump Bead-Power Machine. The rest of the game's story revolves around the player character, "Has Bead", and their journey to stop Dastardly's henchmen by breaking into the dungeons and freeing the bead-like creatures. Gameplay Based on the original Puyo Puyo game released in Japan, Toontown Bump Beads is a competitive puzzle game which follows Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Tweety, Jerry Mouse, Popeye, Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, Top Cat, Hong Kong Phooey, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Rocky and Bullwinkle and the player as they attempt to rescue the people of Beadville from Dick Dastardly and his army of Toon-isters features Yosemite Sam, Elmer Fudd, Wile E. Coyote, Marvin the Martian, Boris, Taz, Bluto, Sylvester, Muttley, Tom Cat, Gossamer and Daffy Duck. Players can play in either Scenario Mode, in which a single player faces off against thirteen increasingly challenging computer opponents, 1P vs 2P mode in which two players battle against each other, and Exercise Mode, in which a player can simply practise. On each player's grid, groups of beads fall from the top of the grid and can be moved and rotated in place until they reach the bottom. When four beads of the same color are matched together, they disappear from the grid, causing any beads on top to drop below. These beads can then automatically trigger other matches, resulting in chain combos of multiple matches in sequence. By successfully performing chain combos, players can send grey "refugee beads" to hinder their opponent. These beads cannot be matched normally and can only be removed by completing a match adjacent to them. A player loses when beans spill over the top of the board, leaving the player unable to add any more beads. The Game Gear and Master System versions feature an additional mode, Puzzle Mode, in which players must attempt to clear predetermined sets of beads. Development and release Toontown Bump Beads is a Westernized version of Puyo Puyo, a Japanese falling block puzzle game developed by Compile and originally released for the MSX2 in 1991. Sega expressed interest in releasing the game for the United States and Europe; however, fearing that the product would not be popular with the Western audience, the company decided to replace the characters of Puyo Puyo with those featured in the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera, Popeye, and Rocky and Bullwinkle franchise, particularly those from the Wacky Races old cartoon series, which aired in 1968-1970. The game was released in November 1994 in both North America and Europe. An 8-bit version was released for the Game Gear in the same year and the Master System in the following year. Toontown Bump Beads has also appeared in retrospective compilations, such as the Looney Tunes: Back in Action for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Game Boy Advance in 2003, Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal for the Wii, PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 in 2007; which also contains the Game Gear version, and Wacky Races: Crash and Dash for Wii and Nintendo DS in 2008. In 2006, Sega released the game on the Wii's Virtual Console. In 2010, it was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam. In June 2013, it was released for the Nintendo 3DS via its Virtual Console emulation service. Reception Toontown Bump Beads received generally positive reviews. It holds an average score of 75% at GameRankings, based on an aggregate of five reviews. Critics praised the various aspects of gameplay, although the difficulty and overuse of the puzzle genre were negative factors. Andy Dyer from Mega acknowledged that the game had a simple concept and also observed that it did not provide enough of a challenge. Lucas Thomas of IGN enjoyed the game's array of puzzles and recognised that its design was intended to encourage two-player competition.Reviewing the Mega Drive version, Damien McFerran of NintendoLife similarly echoed Thomas' opinion of the game's intention to encourage two-player competition, and also noted that it provided a "decent" challenge despite opining that a single player could get bored easily. In contrast, Andrew Webster of Gamezebo criticised the high level of difficulty and the game's general accessibility due to its "ancient" password save system. Aaron Thomas of GameSpot found the game difficult to recommend due to the availability of free Puyo Puyo clones on the PC, but commended its basic mechanics, wide range of game modes, and gradually increasing difficulty. Eurogamer's Kristan Reed labelled the game as a "fairly unapologetic reskin" of Puyo Puyo and thought that Sega decided to "shoehorn" the Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Hanna-Barbera, Popeye and Rocky and Bullwinkle franchise of the voice actor cartoon characters voicing Greg Burson, Frank Welker, Arnold Stang, Billy West, Frank Welker, Jeff Bergman and Keith Scott in order to enhance their sales, although Reed admitted the gameplay was solid and addictive. A reviewer from Jeuxvideo.com questioned the game's originality, saying that "stacking beads to make them disappear is not a new concept" but would still satisfy fans of the genre. Amanda Tipping from Computer and Video Games thought that the game was as addictive and as puzzling as the Tetris series, and also preferred the game's colourful visuals as opposed to Tetris with alongside the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise called Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine. The Game Gear version was well received. In a retrospective review, Ron DelVillano from NintendoLife praised the game's wide variety of game modes but noted the soundtrack's lack of diversity. DelVillano also thought that the graphics had not aged well as of 2013, but accepted that games in the puzzle genre did not require prominent visuals. In a similar vein, a reviewer from Joypad opined that the game's graphics were not "a joy" to look at, but understood that it was "normal" for a game of that genre. Neal Ronaghan of Nintendo World Report lauded the game's addictive and "fun" puzzle gameplay but admitted it contained flaws due to the limitations of the Game Gear. Toontown Bump Beads Gallery Toontown_Bump_Beads_logo.png|Toontown Bump Beads Introduction Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_1.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 1 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_2.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 2 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_3.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 3 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_4.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 4 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_5.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 5 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_6.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 6 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_7.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 7 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_8.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 8 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_9.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 9 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_10.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 10 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_11.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 11 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_12.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 12 Toontown_Bump_Beads_Stage_13.png|Toontown Bump Beads Stage 13 Category:My art STUFF Category:Blogspot stuff Category:Facebook stuff Category:Instagram stuff Category:Twitter stuff Category:YouTube stuff